


Whatever It Takes

by AQuizicalCapricorn



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic), Sonic the Hedgehog (Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Aliens, Dimension Travel, Drama & Romance, Extinction, F/M, Feral Behavior, Hybrids, Isolation, Next Generation, Teenage Drama, Teenage Rebellion, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:52:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27666371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AQuizicalCapricorn/pseuds/AQuizicalCapricorn
Summary: The young echidna had never left her home in her life. She didn't trust anyone. She feared everything. She spent her entire life on a floating island, reading the tales of a race long dead, spending her days curled up against a massive emerald that spoke words to her no one else could hear. Not even her father who had led freedom fighters to war and guarded the master emerald his entire life could hear the voices. He didn't feel their call. She knew she was lucky to have parents. People to teach her. But she knew she was unnatural. Though her parents had never even hinted it, she knew what she was. A half breed. An abomination. A stain on the echidna bloodline and the last living descendant of her species, or so she thought.
Relationships: Knuckles the Echidna/Rouge the Bat
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	Whatever It Takes

Chapter 1 

"Knuckles." The white bat approached the red echidna, who sitting at the base of a giant green gem, popping grapes into his mouth. She placed her hands on his hips, an anxious and annoyed look on her face. "Have you seen Jade?" The male echidna was used to this. His eyes never left his glove or the fruit in it. "Did you check Azure lake?" "Yes." "Waterfall forest?" "Yes!!" The bat barked, unamused by her husband's tone. Knuckles sat up, finally looking at her with violet colored eyes. "Then she's in the caves. You know she loves it down there." He replied. "She's a child. She doesn't need to be in those dark musty tunnels. What if they collapse? What if she's not down there and she wandered off the edge of the island?" Rouge asked. If you told Knuckles fifteen years ago that Rouge would be a nervous mother, he'd tell you she'd never be a mother at all. He stared at her blankly. Waiting for it to click in her head that Jade was also her child, therefore half bat, and that Rouge just implied caves were no place for their daughter. There was a long pause before Rouge turned red with realization. She sighed in defeat. 

A small five year old pink echidna stood in a dark room with walls made of clay and stone. The torches on the walls crackled and she sat there, quiet. She opened her eyes and looked up at the murals on the wall. Depictions of chaos, of Tikal, of the great echidna war. She inhaled the smell of dust and dirt, sighing softly. She clenched her crossed legs with the fingers of her barbed bare hands. She wanted to put faces to the voices. But none of them ever clicked in her head. She couldnt form a true face. No matter how hard she pushed herself. She felt like a spirit trapped inside a child's body. Unable to tap into a deeper power. She closed her eyes tight. Trying to remember. Trying to remember her dreams. To understand the whispers. The screams. The blue watery monster that tore up from the ground-- She choked and gasped for air. She hadnt even realized she was holding her breath. She panted, chest rising and falling, eyes wide. After several moments she slowly stood. She was quiet. She never yelled, she never argued. She never lost her temper. She left that to her parents. She never used her hands, or her feet to fight like her parents. She pretended to be confused whenever her father tried to teach her how to throw a punch. She approached the light at the end of the tunnel and looked up at the open hole that led to the surface, then at the wall presented in front of her. She let out a cry as she pulled her fist back, slamming it into the wall, claws catching in the stone. She placed a foot firmly against the wall and began to climb, sliding a bit, but her eyes twinkled in determination until she pulled herself over the top. She shook out her spines and dusted off her hands. The second her father learned she could climb walls was when her training ended and his began. She didn't want to be a fighter. At least, not his way. Or her mother's. She wanted to fight with her words. To understand the culture of her people. To prove to her ancestors she was worthy of being an echidna. Of being a guardian. She patted across the ground with her bare feet, callused and immune to the grit and pebbles on this side of the island. She had no wings. So every walk was long. But she didn't mind. She finally saw the emerald in view, her mother long gone, her father leaning against the gem, eyes closed, hands behind his neck. She hopped the steps and sat down next to him, bringing her knees to her chest. "Papa..." He didn't respond, but she knew he was awake. "What do you think the old ones think of me...?" She asked. He opened his eyes half way to look down at her. He was quiet for a long moment. "That you won't fail them. That you're strong." He placed a big glove on her head. "Like your father." She giggled and pushed his hands away before diving onto his side, hugging his torso and snuggling into his chest. "Papa, when will I leave the island and see all the other species in the city?" The smile in his expression faded. "When the world is ready..." He said in a quiet mutter. She was too young to understand. Jade lived her life sheltered from the evils of the world beneath her. But others never had that kind of chance...

In another dimension, in another time...

"Are you scared?" A young female echidna with dark brownish orange spines asked with a smirk on her lips as she looked back at the other young echidna with big magenta eyes. "No." Replied the dark furred echidna boy, puffing a black strand of hair from his eyes (And puffing his chest). They both crouched at the end of a floating island, peering over into the black void. Nothing else was around aside from more distant floating islands, pulsing with sickly greens and evil purple hues. The female echidna laid flat on her stomach and grasped the edge of the island, peering over. "You're going to fall." The boy warned, reaching for her but stopped himself, rubbing his spike barren hands together. "That's the point, silly!" She replied. She snapped her head up at the sound of time and space itself ripping apart. A white glowing portal appeared in the sky, shaking, twisting, expanding, broken. Until it collapsed in on itself. The boy began to sweat, eyes wide and wary. No one would get anywhere through those portals. No one would ever leave 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘨𝘦. He didn't see the point in trying. But he only had one friend in this entire cursed realm and he refused to live without her. They sat there for a long time, waiting for another portal to open. And several did. As they always had. Too small, too far, too unstable. And for a moment, he thought they wouldn't have to go through with this stupid idea. Suddenly a horrible noise came from the side of the island and a massive portal opened up. It pulsed vibrant green, a perfect unwavering oval. "MICHAEL!" A woman's voice shrieked from behind them followed by the sounds of heavy metal booted feet. The young female jumped to her feet without hesitation or even a back glance. Michael watched her back up several steps past him. She glanced at him, the dark quilled echidna, with fur such a dark rich red in the shadows it seemed black, and eyes so blue they rivaled the glittering ocean's surface. Then she smiled. The kind of smile that only meant one thing. Goodbye. His eyes widened in horror. She began sprinting and he dashed after her. He heard his name again, and blocked it out by reaching out a hand for the brown echidnas arm. "Lyra-Lie!" He shouted, trying to stop her. But she jumped. And he slid to a stop at the edge. But it was too late. The ground broke beneath him and he slipped. He screamed, shielding his eyes before arms much larger than his wrapped him up and dragged him back up. His mother yanked him into her arms. "Oh my sweet baby--" She rasped, voice shaky and broken, pulling his head against her chest. Squeezing him as if she'd never let go as a masked gaurd pulled her away from the edge. A male voice left the guard who had grabbed her, the violet and white glowing eyes on his suit unchanging. "Lady Demi-Na, are you hurt?" He asked, leaning down to keep a hand on her shoulder. She didnt respond, staring blankly with wide eyes at the edge of the island, stroking her son's quills in slow motion. "Go tell Shade 𝘕𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘶𝘴..." The dark red female echidna began. "That her precious little Lyra-Lie..." She looked up at the guard with dark ashy green eyes. "Jumped..." Her tone was airy and careless. "Get them out of here." A female voice sighed from the next suit over, reaching up and twisting her helmet that gave off an angry hiss in response as it released air pressure. She pulled if off revealing a light pink echidna as her dreads fell over her shoulders. She held her helmet to her hip with her forearm. "The endlessness is no place for children." Her tone dripped with annoyance. "Go get Shade and the Constable. Leave the aliens and the coyotes out of it. This is 𝘌𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘢 business." She said firmly, turning and walking away on heavy feet.


End file.
